Has anyone tried to put in some more sound deadening... After a long drive, i noticed alot of road noise coming thru the cabin...I was thinking some sticky foam insulation, like a dynamat in the rear compartment arouind wheel wells, tailgate, etc...
I do not know if the sound was also coming thru the weatherstripping on the doors, since we only have moderate sealing of the doors...
I noticed my Dodge ram pick up truck is quieter at highway speeds than the X1...
I agree the X1 is not a particularly quiet car. In addition to road noise there is quite a lot of wind noise that penetrates the cabin. For that reason I do not think sound deadening would get you much in terms of a serene drive. American cars seem to put more emphasis on sound deadening.
I put layers of dynamat in my RAV4, a noisy little box and honestly it was not worth the cost. There was some improvement but not much.
The problem lies in the shape of SUV type cars, the interior acts like a speaker chamber amplifying resonances. Sedans tend to seal off the area around the rear tires and of course their shape has less wind resistance so they tend to be quieter.
The trade off is we get more room. That is worth it for me.
Oddly enough I find the X1 to be very quiet. VERY little road noise and also VERY little wind noise. I moved into the '14 X1 from 2000 740iL...and the 7 was a tank and virtually silent on smooth roads. The X1 really performs quite well in comparison. In fact just tonight on our ride home from my parents I was thinking to myself "I love how smooth and quiet this car is!".
Per the sound tests on Edmunds.com (not sure how accurate they are, but I'd imagine not too far off) here is comparison of the X1 35i vs the 535i & 750i. You can see the X1 is only louder at idle...and actually the same or quieter in the other 2 tests: 2013 X1 xDrive35i
Sound level @ idle (dB) 48.3
@ Full throttle (dB) 73.4
@ 70 mph cruise (dB) 64.0
Road noise. My personal Waterloo, and one of a couple of reasons I ended up not quite choosing the X1 as a new car.
Like Foreatwo, I've also spent some time and money insulating a Rav4, with very limited success, but in several test drives, I found the X1 to be a much better starting point than the Rav4 in terms of road noise.
Based on decades of experience chasing road noise in hatchbacks, wagons, and minivans, I've surprisingly found the most impact in the rear panels and tailgate, especially since I drive a lot with the back seats folded flat. I don't think this is because those areas are more important than the doors, but the manufacturers often just don't put much insulation back there (or none at all, in the case of the Rav4).
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
BimmerFest BMW Forum
11.4M posts
753.1K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to BMW owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about Bimmerfest events, production numbers, programming, performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more! Bringing the BMW community together.